Practice baseball bat

ABSTRACT

A hollow bat for baseball practice having an internal longitudinal rod and movable weight which will increase the inertia of the bat during the swing.

United States Patent Inventor Raymond Piazza 15402 Flagstaff St., La Puente, Calif. 91744 Appl. No. 787,670 Filed Dec. 30, 1968 Patented May 18, 1971 PRACTICE BASEBALL BAT 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs. US. Cl 273/26, 273/72 Int. Cl A63b59/06, A63b 69/40 Field of Search 273/26, 26

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 829,749 8/ 1906 Adorjan 273/68 3,137,504 6/1964 Zordan etal. 273/26(B) 514,420 2/1894 .lacobus 273/72 Primary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-'l'l1eatrice Brown Attorney-John E. Wagner ABSTRACT: A hollow bat for baseball practice having an internal longitudinal rod and movable weight which will in crease the inertia of the bat during the swing.

' a baseball bat which will be used for training purposes by all age E P Anotherobject of this invention is to provide a baseball bat which will be made of a lightweight material such as plastic and will have in its interior a slidable weight mounted on a longitudinally extending aluminum or steel rod with the weight movable in order to increase the momentum and inertia during the swing of the hat by the user.

Another object of this invention is to provide a bat which will have a removable screw-type handle allowing for the weight to be changed when desired and the bat will be used to hit a plastic or other synthetic baseball which will not travel a great distance, yet giving the batter true batting practice.

For the use of the present invention, the ball being plastic .will not travel far which will eliminate having a number of people out on the field.

A further object of this invention is to provide a baseball bat that will simulate the standard wooden bat and will tend to have the same proportions of weight as used in the common wooden hat. I

This invention has several distinct advantages over the wooden bat. Usually a boy has to have a number of assorted wooden bats of various weights which are clumsy to handle and will consume space. The common bat used to practice with is usually top heavy and a boy usually has difficulty learning to swing the bat properly, however, with the present invention as the boy starts to swing the bat the sliding weight within the invention will start moving by centrifugal force towards the top portion of the bat causing the user to develop a natural momentum swing.

Other objects of this invention are to provide a baseball bat which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged in construction, easy to use and efiicient in operation.

These and other objects will become readily apparent upon a study of the following specification together with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a vertical view of the present invention shown in elevation and in section;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse view taken along the lines of 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the upper rod portion of the invention shown partly in section and removed from FIG. I;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical view of the rod portion showing a modified form of sliding weight; and

FIG. 5 is a horizontal view of the removable handle with the weight rod shown in fragmentary form.

According to this invention, a baseball bat includes a hollow plastic body portion ll having a removable handle 12. Handle 12 is provided with threads 13 for securing it to the body portion 11 and an elongated aluminum or steel rod 14 which is molded into handle 12 and is prevented from moving by means of integral head 15. Rod 14 extends through the 2 cavity 16 of body portion 11 and carries'a weight 17 which is slidable throughout the length of cavity 16 of body portion 11 (which hereinafter will be described). A screw 18 is threaded into the ends of rod 14 and provide stop means for weight 17 and also provides a means of removing weight 17 so that it may be replaced by a larger or smaller weight whenever desired.

In use, when the batter grips the handle 12 and properly positions himself for swinging the bat, the attitude of the bat then is such that the weight 17 will slide down rod 14 towards the handle 12. When the ball is pitched or otherwise thrown towards bat 10, the batter than swinging bat 10 will cause the weight 17 to slide outward towards the large end of bat l0, centrifugal force causing weight 17 to slide towards screw 18 which will automatically increase the momentum of the swing by the inherent inertia of weight 117.

It shall be noted that instead of a spherical shaped weight 17, a cylindrical weight 17' may be used upon rod 14, as is shown in FIG. 4 of the drawing.

I claim: 1. A practice baseball bat comprising: a body portion having a longitudinal bore therein; a handle portion; means detachably securing said handle portion to said body portion in the region of one end of said longitudinal bore;

an elongated rod secured to said handle and extending within said body portion for substantially the full length of said bore;

said elongated rod including .a stop secured thereto remote from said handle portion; and

weight means mounted on said rod for free-sliding movement along said rod under centrifugal force.

2. The combination in accordance with claim I wherein said stop is positioned to engage said weight means at the outermost end of said longitudinal bore to limit centrifugal movement of said weight means.

3. The combination in accordance with claim 1 wherein said stop is removable from said rod to allow exchange of weight means.

4. A practice baseball bat comprising:

a plastic body portion having a longitudinal bore therein;

said bore being closed at one end and open at the other end of the body portion;

said body portion being tapered in diameter from a relatively small diameter at its open end to a relatively large .diameter at its closed end;

a plastic handle portion; 4

means detachably securing said handle portion to the open end of said body portio an elongated rod anchored at one end to said handle portion and extending within said body portion for substantially the full length of said bore;

said rod having a stop removably secured to its end remote from said handle portion;

weight means mounted on said rod for free-sliding movement under centrifugal force for substantially the entire length of said rod to provide maximum momentum when said bat is swung in an arcuate manner. 

1. A practice baseball bat comprising: a body portion having a longitudinal bore therein; a handle portion; means detachably securing said handle portion to said body portion in the region of one end of said longitudinal bore; an elongated rod secured to said handle and extending within said body portion for substantially the full length of said bore; said elongated rod including a stop secured thereto remote from said handle portion; and weight means mounted on said rod for free-sliding movement along said rod under centrifugal force.
 2. The combination in accordance with claim 1 wherein said stop is positioned to engage said weight means at the outermost end of said longitudinal bore to limit centrifugal movement of said weight means.
 3. The combination in accordance with claim 1 wherein said stop is removable from said rod to allow exchange of weight means.
 4. A practice baseball bat comprising: a plastic body portion having a longitudinal bore therein; said bore being closed at one end and open at the other end of the body portion; said body portion being tapered in diameter from a relatively small diameter at its open end to a relatively large diameter at its closed end; a plastic handle portion; means detachably securing said handle portion to the open end of said body portion; an elongated rod anchored at one end to said handle portion and extending within said body portion for substantially the full length of said bore; said rod having a stop removably secured to its end remote from said handle portion; weight means mounted on said rod for free-sliding movement under centrifugal force for substantially the entire length of said rod to provide maximum momentum when said bat is swung in an arcuate manner. 